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Make your commute an action sport with an electric longboard
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-400236{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-400236, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-400236{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-400236").style.display="none";}catch(e){} A new breed of personal transportation has been bubbling up from the DIY underground over the last few years and it's called the electric skateboard. That's a bit of an umbrella term, actually, since devices range from your standard four wheels and a deck, a snowboard-focused freeboard and unique offerings like Onewheel's balancing act. We sat down with Sanjay Dastoor, the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Boosted Boards to discuss its own electric longboard cruiser and the roller coaster ride from successful Kickstarter to real-world product. One that, in our estimation, is one of the smoothest and fastest rideables on the around, which is why I chose to showcase it as my editor's choice on the Engadget stage at CES this year. We dig into what makes the Boosted Board tick and chat about pricing, available models and the overall enjoyment potential of this economic and fun commuting alternative.
OnKol captures your loved ones' health data so you don't have to
Distance can sour even the fondest familial relationships, and they're even trickier to sustain when health issues are involved. That's where a small, Midwestern hardware startup called OnKol comes in -- it's making a handsome hub for all the digital health data you can squeeze out of compatible health monitors (a decent chunk of which have cables that terminate in USB jacks). It'll also play nice with health devices that support Bluetooth connections, though those can be a little tougher to come by. The end result? A sort of one-stop shop to help you keep tabs on loved ones who could use some remote (but caring!) eyes.
Reddit Notes: Don't call it a currency
Back when Reddit -- bastion of the internet's weirdest conversations -- raised another $50 million in venture funding, the investors involved agreed to give a combined 10 percent of their shares back to the site's users. For almost three months, none of us knew exactly how that would happen, but now Reddit's talking specifics... sort of. Next year, the company will distribute via lottery some 950,000 Reddit Notes, a kinda-sorta digital currency that'll let users "tip, donate, or trade" with peers who also bacon at midnight.
ShitExpress will send poop in a box anywhere in exchange for Bitcoins
You can find absolutely anything on the internet, and services that send poop on your behalf to people who've incurred your hatred are old news. This new startup called ShitExpress, however, offers something its older rivals can't: the ability to accept Bitcoins for total anonymity. No credit card means no paper trail. And, if you take great care to make sure you browse the internet anonymously, nobody will find out it's your doing. For the Bitcoin equivalent of $17, the company will send horse manure (more types will be added in the future, as should be expected from a respected poop delivery service) anywhere in the world for you.
Uber brings on-demand flu shots to Boston, NYC and DC for a day
If there's one thing on-demand car startup Uber likes more than ferrying people around, it's trying to grab people's attention with kooky promo stunts. Uber for barbecue? Uber wedding packages? Pairing riders with attractive lady drivers? Been there, done that (for better or worse). Every once in a while though, Uber cooks up something genuinely useful and today is one of those days: if you live in Boston, Washington DC or New York City, you can order an on-demand flu shot for you and up to nine of your friends until 3PM Eastern.
Google buys an online polling startup to help improve Google+
You know what Google+ really needs, more than anything else? Polls. Right, maybe not, but Google did just acquire a startup (yes, another one!) called Polar that specialized in crafting buzzy online polls like "Who did a better job hosting 'The View'?" and "Is WhatsApp worth $16 billion?" (no, really) for media outlets and website operators. While it wouldn't be impossible for those sorts of click-driving questions to find a new home in Google+, that's not really why Google opened its checkbook. As the New York Times points out, this was actually an acquihire -- a deal meant more to snag the people behind the product than the product itself. Those folks (including co-founder Luke Wroblewski, a big proponent of mobile-first design) are joining the Google+ team to do, well, no one really knows yet. Google VP of engineering Dave Besris cryptically noted on his own Google+ page that they'd be working on making the maligned social service "even more awesome," which in this case apparently means helping fine-tune the Google+ experience, especially when it comes to those small screens we carry with us everywhere.
Snapchat acknowledges jilted founder, settles legal spat
We've seen the whole "successful startup begets jilted cofounder" thing many times before -- there's Facebook and Eduardo Saverin, Twitter and Noah Glass and (most recently) Snapchat and Reggie Brown. The legal battle that last pair has been embroiled in has finally come to an end, though: a statement released earlier today confirms that both parties have resolved their little spat. And really, what better way to quietly end a year's worth of startup drama than to issue a press release while Apple's going crazy?
Digg brings its Twitter news fixation to its RSS reader and iOS app
Last month, Digg tried to very subtly reinvent itself with the launch of a feature called Digg Deeper. The concept was simple enough: Deeper would surface stories based on what your Twitter pals were all talking about, so you'd have a better sense of the news of the moment. There was just one caveat, though. You see, at the time, it was only open to members of News.me (the startup the new Digg team slaved away on first). We're down with rewarding loyalty, but now Deeper is expanding in a big way -- the feature has been baked into the Digg Reader proper, and now also lives in an updated version of the Digg iOS app you can download right now. Oh, and the team's launching a new daily digest email that'll encapsulate all your Twitter friends' shared stories and blast them into your inbox (as if it wasn't cluttered enough). Digg's little social experiment seems to have paid off, but the thing to remember is that it's still just a start. After all, there's still no support for social channels beyond Twitter (like a less clickbait-y Facebook, for instance) and no word on when Google's faithful will get a chance to sift through all that new news on their Android devices.
Dropbox Pro plan now offers 10x the storage for the same price
Beefing up your free Dropbox account with extra space isn't hard if you know what to look for, but the company just smartly streamlined its Pro plans in case you need even more cloud action. Kiss those tricky tiered plans goodbye: all that's left now is a 1TB option that'll set you back $9.99 a month (or $99 a year). Not a bad deal considering that's how much you would've paid Dropbox monthly for 100GB of cloud storage just a few days ago, and the company is sweetening the pot with some neat new sharing and security features too. Left your laptop at that seedy diner over in Toledo? A few clicks is all it takes to remotely wipe all the synced files that were still on it. You can exercise a bit more caution with your shared links too by slapping password protection and expiration dates on them, too. Really, it's those features that Dropbox hopes will give it an edge over some larger rivals -- Google Drive's monthly rate plans dipped to similar levels earlier this year, while Amazon still costs a ton compared to both.
Google buys design firm behind OLPC and Slingbox
Man, Google's checkbook is really getting a workout this summer. According to a report from Bloomberg, the search giant just acquired yet another company, and unlike the other two companies it bought this month, it isn't an mobile app startup No, no: its latest target is a small product design firm called Gecko, and Google's looking to bring those design smarts to bear on its ambitious Google X projects.
Swiss startup creates a wearable chair so you can rest anywhere
Most of the wearable gadgets getting people hot and bothered either strap onto your face or your wrist, but Swiss startup noonee has cooked up a little something that straps to your legs instead. Well, fine, maybe it's not exactly little: in a bid to keep factory line workers more alert and more comfortable during their shifts, the five person team has developed a locking leg support device they call the Chairless Chair. Once you get strapped in, all it takes is a press of a button to get settled -- the aluminum and carbon fiber frame holds whatever position your legs take and essentially becomes, well, an invisible chair. The secret sauce here is a battery-powered dampening system eases the load on your lower back and legs by supporting the your body weight and directing it down into your heels. Noonee's curious wearable is still firmly in the prototype phase (though Audi and BMW will soon take the thing for spin on its production lines) but if it works as well as the team says it does, expect every haggard commuter -- or frenzied blogger cranking out stories at a trade show -- to own one soon enough.
VizeraLabs reupholsters furniture with the power of light
Looking for the perfect chaise longue? That's no easy feat even on the best days, but the process is made even trickier since stores rarely seem to have their full collections on display. That's precisely the problem a San Francisco startup called VizeraLabs is trying to tackle, and its team has built a curious little projector to help. You see, instead of displaying reruns of Doctor Who on your wall, it's used to project different fabrics and finishes onto whatever surface it's pointed at, be it a wall or an armchair.
Google snags Instagram-scanning city guide startup Jetpac
Google's summer of startup acquisitions rolls on, ladies and gentlemen. In today's installment, the search giant snapped up a San Francisco-based travel startup called Jetpac for (you guessed it!) an undisclosed lump of money. As is the case with plenty of new ventures, Jetpac has gone through a few phases -- in its current form, the team offered up travel guides for cities that culled sentiments from people's Instagram photos. No, seriously.
FreedomPop plans to bring freemium mobile data to Europe and beyond
FreedomPop -- a freemium wireless carrier startup -- has been trying to upend the way people pay for phone service in the US for what seems like ages now. Turns out the US was only part of the plan. The company confirmed today that it's setting its sights abroad with a free data plan currently being tested in Belgium, with launches in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and parts of Asia expected to follow.
Aereo asks users to fight back against Supreme Court ruling
With a new Supreme Court ruling on the books, things are looking awfully grim for Aereo and all those tiny, cloud-friendly antennas it controls. That's why CEO Chet Kanojia has temporarily turned off the television streaming service, and that's why he's asking for help. The beleaguered startup sent out an open letter encouraging all of us to email, tweet, and otherwise petition our land's leaders to defend the right to use a "modern antenna located in the cloud" to watch all that free over-the-air content. "Today, I'm asking you to raise your hands and make your voices heard," Kanojia wrote. "Tell your lawmakers how disappointed you are that the nation's highest court issued a decision that could deny you the right to use the antenna of your choice to access live over-the-air broadcast television."
Cruise aims to make a self-driving car out of one you already own
We're plummeting headlong into a future of cars that move without us, and you may not have to buy a brand new ride to be a part of it. You see, a startup called Cruise has been showing off a working prototype of its aftermarket RP-1 kit, and it aims to bring self-driving smarts to the car you already have.
White House helps tech startups make advanced parts
It's one thing to come up with a clever product idea, but it's something else to actually build it; it can be tough to find the materials you need, let alone the tools to put everything together. That's where a new round of White House initiatives might just lend a helping hand. As part of its open data efforts, the administration is upgrading its research data site so that startups can easily find government manufacturing and research facilities; the Department of Energy and NASA have outlets dedicated to working on clean energy and aeronautics, for example. The project will eventually surface government-backed patents and other manufacturing info that's frequently tough to track down.
Your smartphone may soon double as a hearing aid, thanks to Mimi
Let's face it: we live in a noisy world. If we're not sitting on loud trains or traipsing past construction sites, we're retreating into music with headphones. Alas, this also means hearing loss is a problem that can't be ignored -- that's why a startup called Mimi cooked up an iOS app to help you really figure out how far gone your hearing is.
Microsoft's Innovation Center to school citizens on technology, help startups in Miami
Miami is going to get a whole lot geekier if Microsoft has its way. The software giant has recently announced plans to open its first US-based Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) in the sexy city later this spring, with more stateside locations to follow. The Miami MIC will focus on four different audiences: academia, the local Latin American community, government and start-ups, and it's said that each group will benefit in its own way. Students, for example, will have a place to net specialized training and pick up valuable tech-related job skills. Will Smith's favorite burg will also serve as a part of Microsoft's CityNext program, which uses locals to create "healthier, safer and more sustainable" places to live. Only time will tell if the siren song of South Beach will have an adverse effect on any of the above, though. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
Former TV bigwigs are going after 'super-fans' with new online video service
Another day, another upstart streaming video service. The latest contender to enter the fray is Tapp, the subscription-based brainchild of former CNN president Jon Klein and former NBC Universal Television chairman Jeff Gaspin. So what's got a bunch of big name investors (including Google's Eric Schmidt) so worked up? Well, Tapp (which is short for the profoundly uncatchy "TV App") is centered around a series of video channels for your smartphones and smart TVs that are tailored to specific niches like sports, politics, science and fitness. Unlike Hulu or Netflix though, you'll pay $10 a month for each of the channels you actually want. That may sound a little steep, but these guys are banking on the star power of their hosts to make those channels worth paying for. For now the list of personalities is a mystery, though the New York Post reports that Sarah Palin may be one of the first -- we'll find out for sure when Tapp goes live in a few weeks.
